Request By:
Mr. Jess D. Turpin
Executive Director
Somerset-Pulaski County
Tourist Commission
P.O. Box 622
Somerset, Kentucky 42501
Opinion
Opinion By: Steven L. Beshear, Attorney General; By: Charles W. Runyan, Assistant Deputy Attorney General
As Executive Director of the Somerset-Pulaski County Tourist Commission, and on behalf of said commission, you request an opinion of this office relative to the following questions:
1. Whether the county judge/executive and/or county fiscal court is authorized by statute to dissolve a county tourist commission once such a commission has been properly established, and
2. May the treasurer of the tourist commission acting in said capacity properly collect the transient room tax provided for in KRS 91A.390, when authorized by order of the county fiscal court?
The subject commission was established pursuant to KRS 91A.350(2). KRS 91A.390(4) provides for the issuance of revenue bonds. Such bonds would not be an indebtedness of the county or city. However, contractual indebtedness is involved. Section 19 of the Kentucky Constitution prohibits impairment of obligation of contract. See
Padgett v. Sensing, Ky., 438 S.W.2d 501 (1969), relating to express library district dissolution provisions in KRS 173.800.
It is our opinion, as to Question No. 1, that there are no statutory provisions for dissolution of the commission, and that the county judge/executive with or without the fiscal court has no authority to dissolve the commission.
As relates to Question No. 2, a transient room tax may be established by the county and city, pursuant to KRS 91A. 390(1), to fund the commission's operations. Such tax is a license or occupational tax. See § 181,
Kentucky Constitution, and City of Lexington v. Motel Developers, Inc., Ky., 465 S.W.2d 253 (1971).
KRS 91A.390(1) provides in part that "provision shall be made for the collection of the tax and the enforcement of the tax measure enacted."
It is our opinion, when considering the whole purpose of the commission under KRS 91A.350 et seq., that the City of Somerset and the Pulaski Fiscal Court, may, under appropriate ordinances, give the commission treasurer the authority to collect the city-county tax and make proper reports thereof and accounting therefor to the city and county respectively. In the absence of taking special action covering the collection of the room tax, the city and county would collect the tax they impose. In